Recent immigrants and the use of cervical cancer screening test in Canada

Using data from Canadian National Population Health Survey (1998-1999), this paper examined the factors that cause gap in Pap test utilization rate between recent immigrants and other Canadians. The Fairlie non linear decomposition analysis suggests that group differences in the mean values of the variables representing race, language, having regular physician, insurance ownership, and income level are the major factors behind the gap between other Canadians and recent immigrants. The results of the study also show that the Pap test utilization gap between other Canadians and recent immigrants narrows down over time though the process is quite slow.